Use and protection of soil and water resources in sustainable agriculture: Case of Muğla

In this study, it is aimed to examine the use of soil and water from natural resources for a sustainable agriculture and the behavior of producers towards the use and protection of soil and water. For this purpose, the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers, the information about their businesses, the land characteristics and product distribution, the product evaluation, sales and financial status of the producers, the use and protection of the land, the use and protection of water resources, the attitudes and behaviors of the farmers about these issues were determined. The main material of the study was the data obtained by the face-to-face survey method in 2019 with 118 producers living in Muğla province. Simple random sampling method was used to determine the sample volume. The data obtained as a result of the survey were transferred to the computer environment and analyzed with the SPSS package program. Proportional distributions, Chi-square and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) were used in the analysis of the data. According to the results of the research, it was determined that the average age of the interviewed farmers was 54.It is seen that they produce vegetables in an area between 500 m2 and 5 decares and grow them in an irrigated environment in their own properties. It has been determined that they sell most of their products directly to the consumers and their average income was 73000 TL. When the purposes of using the land are examined, it has been revealed that they are mostly used for subsistence. They stated that, in terms of know-how, they benefited from their family/neighbours'experiences, from agricultural pesticide dealers, agricultural chambers, and agricultural credit cooperatives in pesticide delivery; and they relied on their own knowledge or agricultural engineers in the diagnosis of diseases and pests. It is seen that they use artesian, well and mains water while irrigating, and they use the methods of surface, localized, drip and sprinkler irrigation methods. They are of the opinion that their agricultural spraying has an effect on the soil and water, and that the water resources are gradually decreasing.